PC Hardware in a Nutshell is the practical guide to buying, building, upgrading, and repairing Intel-based PCs. A longtime favorite among PC users, the third edition of the book now contains useful information for people running either Windows or Linux operating systems. Written for novices and seasoned professionals alike, the book is packed with useful and unbiased information, including how-to advice for specific components, ample reference material, and a comprehensive case study on building a PC.In addition to coverage of the fundamentals and general tips about working on PCs, the book includes chapters focusing on motherboards, processors, memory, floppies, hard drives, optical drives, tape devices, video devices, input devices, audio components, communications, power supplies, and maintenance. Special emphasis is given to upgrading and troubleshooting existing equipment so you can get the most from your existing investments.This new edition is expanded to include:

Detailed information about the latest motherboards and chipsets from AMD, Intel, SiS, and VIA

Extensive coverage of the Pentium 4 and the latest AMD processors, including the Athlon XP/MP

Full details about new hard drive standards, including the latest SCSI standards, ATA/133, Serial ATA, and the new 48-bit "Big Drive" ATA interface

Extended coverage of DVD drives, including DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW, and DVD+R/RW

Details about Flat Panel Displays, including how to choose one (and why you might not want to)

PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition provides independent, useful and practical information in a no-nonsense manner with specific recommendations on components. Based on real-world testing over time, it will help you make intelligent, informed decisions about buying, building, upgrading, and repairing PCs in a cost effective manner that will help you maximize new or existing computer hardware systems. It's loaded with real-world advice presented in a concise style that clearly delivers just the information you want, without your having to hunt for it.

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of PC Hardware in a Nutshell, Third Edition, is a scallop. The scallop is part of the pecten family, which includes other bivalve mollusks such as clams and oysters. Also called the fan shell or comb shell, scallops can be found on the sandy bottoms of most oceans, in both deep and shallow water. Scallops do not usually stay attached to rocks. Instead, they either rest on the ocean bottom or swim by rapidly opening and closing their shells. The water ejected by the movement pushes them forward and allows them a freedom of movement unusual in bivalves.The scallop's shell is made up of calcium carbonate and other minerals embedded in an organic matrix secreted from a layer of tissue called the mantle. The upper and lower halves of the shell connect at a straight hinge line that can measure from one to six inches. The shell's paired valves have sharp edges and undulating ridges that radiate out in the shape of a fan and range in color from red to purple, orange, yellow, or white. Sarah Sherman was the production editor, and Audrey Doyle was the copyeditor for PC Hardware in a Nutshell, Third Edition. Matt Hutchinson and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Reg Aubry, Derek Di Matteo, and Jamie Peppard provided production assistance. Nancy Crumpton wrote the index.Hanna Dyer designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is an 18th-century engraving from the Dover Treasury of Animal Illustrations. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Andrew Savikas to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Colleen Gorman.

In 2003, when I bought this book, I would have given it five stars. This book helped me make decisions about hardware to install in a PC that I was building. It was particularly useful because the authors weren't trying to sell me any particular item or brand.

Having said that, this is the kind of book that absolutely MUST be updated at least annually. Today, in 2012, it is so far out of date as to be useless.

I wish the authors would write a new edition, because I want to build another PC.

What a joy to use! Having used the Macintosh platform for 17 years, I really needed to become PC savvy , and in a hurry, for a client project I agreed to work through. This is THE DEFINITIVE reference work to learn the ins and outs of PC bits and pieces. After reading this book (cover to cover) I purchased another guide to PC Upgrade and Repair, twice as thick, but with not even half as much useful info as the O'Reilly guide offered. This one is all you need!

I hate to harp on this because otherwise it looks like a marvelous book.... I ordered it from Amazon thinking that being a brand-new edition and from O'Reilly this will almost certainly be the most up-to-date general reference for PC hardware I'm likely to find.

But I'm a bit dismayed at the fact that, after looking at the index and table of contents and flipping through the text, I can't seem to find a reference to network cards or modems at all. I see on page 5 there's a note saying that LAN is one of the less commonly available integrated functions on motherboards, which (having spent the last month shopping for components) strikes me as incorrect. 10/100 Ethernet or Gigabit LAN are available on many motherboards these days. Shouldn't there be a chapter explaining the difference between the two? I wouldn't expect a guide on installing home networks or anything, but maybe something addressing the differences between NIC, 56k modem, DSL, cable modem, and so on. And maybe some common configuration and troubleshooting issues? One doesn't build a computer without a networking component of some kind, these days.